Madison Middle School

By barsotti_p 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/madisonstaff/2023/05/26/may-26-2023/

Madison Staff,

We only have 1 more 5 day week of the school year! As predicted, some students’ behaviors increase as the end of the year draws near. This means the ReFocus Room is getting pretty busy, especially the end of the of the day. If you have students who ask for a break but don’t really need the ReFocus Room, please have them try a classroom break first. It’s hard to help some of our regular visitors when the ReFocus Room has more than a handful of kids. 

Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION     

• Staffing Update: PE position is still not posted, but I hope soon.
                                
• End of the Year (More Structure versus Less Structure): Make Up Days or days where the students finish activities before the bell.  Please have things for them to do.  Just hanging out and moving about the classroom will create headaches for the students trying to work plus you. Also, please make sure that you are marking tardies; particularly after break and lunch. That’s an area where we’re starting to see kids push limits.
• Midsummer Nights Dream: Come support the theater program this week.  There are three showings all starting at 6:30; Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
• Repeat: TalentEd Goals Reflection: All licensed staff need to complete the Goals Reflection in TalentEd before the end of the year. For those of you who used the template goal around grade guardian, Dorothy is working on preparing that spreadsheet for your Focus class’ risk, based on grades and missing assignments. I’ll send it out when it’s ready, hopefully by mid-late next week.
• Next Friday after school: We will have a third and final work session with the interim assessments.
• College and Career Day: Friday, 6/2
  • We are one week away from our College and Career Exploration Day!

    The Planning Committee wanted to share some more logistics with everyone about the event.

    • Presenters are planning to arrive by 8:30 to be escorted to their classrooms to start getting set up
    • Please share with your presenter which lunch they will have based on when your lunch is – we are providing sandwiches, chips, and fruit for our presenters down in the staff room. Any dietary needs will be labeled.
    • Students will be following their regular class schedule and seeing the presentations in those classes. We are considering changing this up for next year with more student choice, but this is what we are asking for this year. 
    • Each student will have a Presenter Passport to keep with them throughout the day. We will have these ready to go for your first period class in your mailboxes. Please hand them out at the start of first period that day as you are taking attendance.
    • We are asking that you give Lion Loot to students who are filling in their Passports toward the end of each period of the day. Please save the last 5 minutes of each class period for Lion Loot drawings. Gina is working on getting a variety of small prizes for students to earn for being a good audience member.
    • Our 6th period Lion Loot drawing will be a larger prize. (Gina – are we able to do the gift card for each class for 6th period?)
    • Our Plan B just in case we have some last minute cancellations is to combine classes. If you have class periods that are small and we have a classroom without a presenter, we would like to combine classes with you. 
    • If you have students who will be in your class twice that day (intervention classes), our plan is to invite those students to join a different classroom presentation so they don’t hear the same presentation twice. Please take attendance first. If it is a large number of students, please let someone know and we will help support that class.

DISTRICT INFORMATION        

• Classified Staff – OEBB Dependent Eligibility Verification Due by June 27: If you’re a classified staff member AND you have dependents covered by your insurance, be on the lookout for mail from OEBB about verifying your dependents. If you’re married, you’ll have to send in a copy of your marriage license and the front page of your tax return. For dependent children, you have to send in copies of their birth certificates. There is a cover sheet that comes in the mail along with directions of what to do. Feel free to ask me any questions you have! Don’t delay – failure to verify your dependents will result in them being dropped from your insurance.    
                 
• COVID Updates: 4J is changing three COVID protocols to align with changes in state policy. One, COVID positive staff and students are no longer required to quarantine for 5 days and instead just need to be fever free for 24 hours without meds. Two, schools receive new testing kits in the fall to have on-hand. Three, effective June 17th, the vaccination and religious or medical exemption requirement for staff, visitors, and volunteers will end.
       
• Administrator Updates: A few updates to district and school leadership.
  • Nadira Rizkallah will be principal at Edgewood Elementary next year. Nadira was previously co-administrator of River Road and Buena Vista and most recently served as South Lane’s human resources and equity director.
  • Kimberly Ingram has been named the principal of YG for next year. Kimberly comes from Salem Keizer where she’s been the principal at Battle Creek elementary for two years and was the district’s elementary curriculum coordinator for MTSS. She also has a Ph.D in special education.
  • Megan Russell, currently the AP at Gilham Elementary, will shift to Monroe Middle School as their AP.
  • Tom Piowaty, principal at Yujin Gauken, will move to Gilham as their assistant principal next year.
  • Carlos Sequeria, formerly assistant superintendent at Lane ESD, will join the Spencer Butte team as their assistant principal.
  • Eric Anderson, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, has been named the new Assistant Superintendent at Lane ESD.
  • Kevin Gordon, formerly principal of Adams and Camas and currently principal of Laurel in Junction City, has been named as Chavéz’s principal for next year.
  • Ed Mendelssohn will take over as the College and Career Readiness/CTE Administrator next year when Tia Holliday retires. Ed has been in administration for 20 years in 4J and Springfield.
  • Adrienne Pierce will serve as the Secondary Curriculum & MTSS Administrator.
  • Morgan Christianson will shift from Title IX Coordinator to Human Resources Administrator supporting licensed staff.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION   

• None
         

Looking Ahead:

We hope you have a wonderful week!

Peter and Gina